I drove all the way from Tuscaloosa,Ala. Skip ed school.I remember some friendly bikers sharing their goods. I had stopped in Tampa and borrowed a sleeping bag from my cousin. I remember being at the front of the stage with Mike Pinera playing. Its seemd ther weren't many people at that point. I remeber Flo and Eddie and thats about it except they towed 500 cars including mine. My cousin came over and bailed my car out. All I had was a Phillips credit card.No cash. One place let me buy beer and chips on it.I got to Montgomery and had to go in a restaurant and a dollar for gas until I could find a station.I remember the t-shirts. Have nothing from the 70's thanks to Storage Wars.

I was there and I have so many memories a d experiences stemming from that show. But i thought it was a 3-day show. Just do t remember, probably due to the copious amounts of drugs including acid, lol!I also thought it was called SunFest and that it was the original show which now plays in WPB every year, but I guess I'm mistaken. Oh well...

Does anyone remember that red schoolbus full of commune hippies from Cali with the Cheif Hippie who called himself Obta/ That guy was selling sheets of acid which he would pull out from under the back seat and man he had a stack of them. They were the size of a typical sheet of paper and were made of construction paper peppered with fragments of windowpane all through it and prints of dragon flies with each dragon fly taking up an area of 4 hits. When I got back to Atlanta I bought a High Times magazine and it was the centerfold as the connoisseur find of the month. Man that shit was awesome and I kicked myself in the ass for not getting at least a whole sheet.

Lordy, I don't remember a lot but I do remember Buffet, Pure Prairie League, Cactus(Iron Butterfly), ARS, Melanie and Earl Scruggs Revue, I don't know, I guess I was pretty hammered, I thought Leon Redbone did pretty good, he looked cool in that ice cream suit and panama hat anyway. I was stationed at McDill AFB in Tampa, rode in Fri. afternoon with three buddies, 4 cases of beer and a bag of chips, parked in the trees, and started roaming the campfires, catching tokes and listening to all the jam tunes. Long about 2am I realized I was by myself and everybody else seemed to be crashed out, so I stretched out in the field and passed out. The next morning I woke up to some one opening a car door and stepping on my head, it was one of my buddies, I guess I found our car on auto pilot, and crashed right under it. I also brought my cheesy little Panasonic cassette recorder and still have the tape to this day. got bits of Melanie, Earl Scruggs, Cactus, ARS, AND the announcement, "Don't take the orange sunshine, it's bad acid, we have several people in the med tent already". Good Times, they just don't do shows like that any more! Wasn't it something like 350,000 in attendance?

I was there and yes there was an old race track,cow pastures and a whole lot of fucked up people. I got there about midnight Friday and show had started 5pm -8pm ?? and Richie Havens I believed ended it Sunday am. That's when I left anyway as he was singing "Here Comes The Sun".I had had enough by then because I spent the whole time in the back of Polk County Sheriff's car. A very messed up guy passed out under my front wheels while I was stopped trying to get people off my car. They were piling on the car as I was driving through this makeshift road to a makeshift parking area. It was dark,no lights and I didn't see him under my car...of course I wasn't looking for fucked up people under my car and I ran over him...all 4 wheels. He's just fine so don't worry about him. He got good drugs and alot of money from everybodys insurance companies.They were expecting 10-20,000 people and over a 100,000 showed up.I really wish I could have enjoyed myself because people were having a real good time.

I was there and I was hammered. Walked and hitchhiked around 2:00 am from St Leo College. It was a rough couple days, hot as hell. Thank God for those water trucks. The highlights of the show were Leon Redbone in either a drunken stupor or a psychedelic haze falling off a couch that the roadies brought out on stage because he couldn't stand up. He couldn't get through one song. Then "Cactus" who was a reincarnation of "Iron Butterfly" came out and did "In A Gadda Da Vida" Jimmy Buffet closed the show. I was 18, had no cash on me, ripped my shorts climbing over the fence sneaking in after my plastic beer can ring failed to pass as the bracelets they were selling. Going on the tour at the Schlitz Brewery in Tampa earlier that 1st day for about the fifteenth time set the stage for a great weekend. I am married now with 3 kids that just wouldn't appreciate that weekend.

So funny....drove from St Leo Friday having had no plans to go at all.....We had very little money and no tickets.....so we got our bracelets at the local hospital...worked like a charm! Somehow, we had plenty of beer and other goodies..I ended up driving back alone cause I lost everyone I came with! For all I know...we may have done the beer tour at the Busch brewery on north 30th street that day! Small world.

I too went late on Friday from St.Leo. Really had had no plans to go, and therefore no tickets and very little money. So we got our bracelets from the nice folks at the local hospital...worked like a charm! We had plenty of beer and other goodies...not much to eat though. I had to drive home alone...lost everyone I had come with!

I remember going to Sunfest. I went with some friends from work. I remember hearing Jimmy Buffet and Richie Havens but not much else that weekend. There were plenty of people driving around kicking up dust. I don't recall the location, just that it was somewhere near Tampa.

It was a huge campout/music festival that arrived at the tail end of the era of outdoor festivals. We brought in a cooler of food and grilled our meals - hotdogs, bacon, eggs, plenty of beer.

I DO remember being told this upon paying the entry fee: "Wear this bracelet all the time and you can do WHATEVER you want to do."

I was also at the Led Zepellin show in June 1977 at Tampa Stadium. They left the stage early into the show claiming it was because of the rain. It seems like a riot had also broken out in the audience right in front of them. They said they'd return when the rain stopped but it was announced shortly afterwards that the concert would not continue that night. We were told to keep our ticket stubs to return in a few days for a rescheduled show. Obviously this statement was intended to get the stadium emptied peacefully because the local paper soon posted they would not be returning. If we wanted a refund all we had to do was mail them our ticket stubs. I did that and got my money back but wished I'd kept that stub just for the memory and proof I was there. They were quite huge at that time.

And we only paid $10 - My kids look at my photo album and ask about all the ticket stubs I have saved - they can not believe the Led Zepp ticket at the Tampa Stadium - only $10 also

Don't remind me of ticket stubs. I had dozens & dozens from 70 onward, fixed to paper and stapled to the wall around the head of my bed, and my step dad tore them down and threw them all away one day when I wasn't home. It broke my heart, I had spent years hitching around the country in my early teens (with a step dad like him at home, away was a good place to be). I looked older than I was, I was tall, no one [b]ever[/b] questioned my age..I saw Mountain and Ted Nugent in Little Rock, AR, Yes doing the "Going For The One" tour's performance in New Haven, CT, Ten Years After, Deep Purple and Silverhead in Jax, and more than I can remember. I saw smaller shows, basically bar sponsored shows or county fair shows... All gone, at the hand of (get this) Windom Pickelsimer...

Was down from vt in west palm for employment , it was hot richie havens, pure prairie league, Melanie , some guy that did a great job of iron butterfly, earl Scruggs revue , Leslie warnes, jimmy Buffett, flo and Eddie of the turtles. Atlanta Rythm section, the p a played grateful dead between acts which was awesome, had a great time

I went to this. Jimmy Buffett threw frisbees to the crowd. I don't remember much, I was so stoned I was afraid to go to the PortaPotty because I didn't think I'd ever find my way back. I took pictures of the massive amounts of trash left behind the next morning. I'm happy to see all the bands that played posted here--i've wondered for years who was there.

Hello USF girl, I am the original poster to this topic, but the site no longer recognized my login info.. as you can tell, yours was a shared experience. Still amazed that folks still stumble on this thread and are good enough to comment. I get a notice each time someone posts here.... Pretty cool

Does anyone rmember the 2 day (Saturday Sunday) rock festival held at the speedway around 1977 or 1978?I was trying to come up with a lineup of artists that performed. Any organizers/participants still out there? I worked SECURITY for the event but can remember VERY LITTLE....

Orleans, Melanie, Canned Heat to name a few. I was there the whole weekend. Summer, 1977.

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